In 2022, Natalie Zoghby, was inspired by the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. When Zoghby witnessed Jackson’s daughter watching her mother’s confirmation, she decided to add Jackson to her collection of paintings.

Zoghby is a portrait artist from Hoover who now resides in Vestavia.

“I like to paint women who inspire me, and are influential in society,” Zoghby told AL.com. “So I’ve done paintings of Dolly Parton, Maya Angelou, Taylor Swift.”

Former U.S. senator Doug Jones happened to see Zoghby’s art last year at the Grand Bohemian Hotel Mountain Brook Gallery, for a exhibit called “Women In Color.” In 2022, Jones was appointed by President Joe Biden to assist in the nomination of Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, so he took a picture of the portrait and sent a text the justice.

However, Zoghby and Jones didn’t meet until August 2023 at Pepper Place Farmer’s Market. Jones saw her prints and thought her work looked familiar. Initially, he didn’t see any prints of Jackson. Jones continued to thumb through Zoghby’s prints and eventually came across image of the same portrait he saw last year at the Grand Bohemian Gallery.

The two sparked a conversation about Jackson’s upcoming trip to Birmingham for a memorial service marking the 60th anniversary of the 1963 bombing that killed four Black young girls at 16th Street Baptist Church. Zoghby then offered to present her painting to KBJ if there was an opportunity to do so. Jones called her a few weeks later to coordinate her display of the portrait at a private dinner for the Supreme Court Justice along with other elected officials.

The dinner happened on Sept. 14 at Highlands Bar and Grill. When she saw the portrait, a shocked Jackson exclaimed, “What inspired this? Why did you do this?”

“She’s obviously the object of a lot of attention and has been since her nomination, but she was very flattered that someone would do this on their own in conjunction with a series of prominent women in this country,” Jones told AL.com.

Zoghby and Jackson were able to have a conversation about their love and appreciate for art. Jackson let Zoghby know that the painting was “spectacular.”

The next day, Zoghby posted about her experience on Instagram. Last night a dream too big for me to imagine happened,” she wrote in the caption. “I had the honor and privilege of meeting and showing my art to the woman who has inspired so many including myself, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson!”

More on Ketanji Jackson Brown:

‘I felt in my spirit I had to come,’ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson says at 16th Street Baptist Church

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